8. IV. 09.

Dear Anyuta!

I received today the proofed 22nd sheet (pp. 337-352). There are very few errors in it. I am sending you a list of them*.

Regarding the publication of the book, I have two very important requests for you.

1) From the experience of the past month, I can see that even the remaining 4-5 sheets the publisher and printing house are capable of dragging out excessively. And yet it is devilishly important to me that the book come out as soon as possible. I have tied to its publication not only literary, but also serious political obligations.270 Therefore I urgently request that you without fail hire (or have the "writer" hire, if you hand this over to him) an assistant for special visits to the printing house and pressing them. It is not difficult, of course, to find a student for 15 rubles a week: there will be a multitude of candidates for such a position. Promise him a bonus**

* The list has not been preserved. Ed.

** It is clear that without a bribe for the Russian bureaucracy one cannot get by. Give 10 rubles to the foreman if the book comes out by 10. IV,—it is necessary to act upon the printing house apart from the publisher.

of 20 rubles if the book comes out by 10. IV. He will go to the printing house, deliver the proofs there, bring back the corrected proofs to you without delay, watch the work every day, and so forth. I do not begrudge hundreds of rubles for this. By all means do this or have the "writer" do it, for it is a matter of life and death for me if they delay the book until the second half of April.

2) I have now sent errata for sheets 1-22 to you. Let them immediately compile a list of these misprints and send me a proof of it: there will be time for this, and for me it is important, for the book must come out carefully.

I press your hand. Your V. U.

I embrace Mama warmly!

in the journal

Sent from Paris to Moscow

First published in 1930

in "Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya" No. 1

Printed from the manuscript